EPILOGUE - LESBOS
The green slopes of Mount Ida drop down toward the warm blue waters of the Aegean Sea. With the bright Turkish sunshine and clear blue sky behind it, the heights of the mountain stand clear central to the view from across the narrow Mytilini Strait. Here the clear Aegean waters wash against the white sands of a beautiful Greek island. This is Lesbos, the island once home to the famed poet Sappho and her devoted female disciples. Such is the impact of the poet's words and thoughts that the island has long since leant its name to any 'of the Sapphic persuasion' in giving them the epithet of 'lesbian'. Since such a time the island has become something of a pilgrimage site-cum-holiday spot for same sex female couples.
At this point in the garden of a small, pretty villa perched on a clifftop above the Mytilini waters one of Sappho's modern followers lay sunbathing naked beside her latest companion, her new lover. College dropout Persephone Cross' usually pale skin had tanned a golden brown colour, while her hair had grown out to hang around her shoulders, now coloured blue apart from a streak of undyeable brown above her forehead, the piercings in her nose and eyebrow glinted in the warm sunlight. She was more relaxed and contented than she had been in a long time and that was reflected in the clean slate that was her uninked, unblemished skin, save for the single tattoo on her arm. This tattoo was a near match for the similar one reflected on the opposite arm, the one belonging to the equally curvy female form sunning herself beside her.
Ms. Cross' partner, sometime photographer Gabrielle Herrison similarly soaked up the day's warmth, her matching pair of firm, naked breasts similarly tanned by the endless Greek summer. Her whole body, in fact, was a sort of mirror of her lover's. From the similar tattoo on the opposite arm to her cascades of dark wavy hair, a single red streak in the spot where her lover's was dark. The only great difference lay between her legs where Ms. Herrison's little penis and balls nestled between smooth feminine thighs, the only enduring reminder of a masculine past she had been only too happy to sever her ties with.
Life on Lesbos was easy and pleasant for the wealthy English lesbian and her hermaphroditic lover. There were sunny days, sandy beaches and warm seas. They enjoyed healthy delicious Greek food and plenty of wine and were well known to many of the island's all girl night spots. This had been what neither could have expected the day both decided to visit London's National Gallery on a grey, wet English morning, but then life can take some strange turns even without ancient secret societies and mythical curses.
Propping herself up on one shoulder, the newly feminised hermaphrodite turned to face her lover, her reclining body unconsciously adopting a posture reminiscent of many artistic renderings of classical reclining nudes, but one that was off special significance to the two of them. Her gaze took in all of her lover's naked body, still finding it hard to believe that she could look at her like this, let her gaze linger on those naked breasts and not be met with a scornful look or withering comeback.
"Do you ever miss it, Saphy?" she asked, "Your old life, I mean, England, Cambridge all that."
"Just Jane Cavendish," Saphy replied wistfully, "Her getting mixed up in this is the only thing I regret, but it's not something I can go back to. There's nothing else for me back there." She paused and her moody expression lightened into a fond smile, "Besides, Gabby" she went on, "I wouldn't give up any of this for anything."
Her hand gestured to show "any of this" took in the sunny skies, the sea beneath the cliff, the villa and Gabby stretched out beside her. Gabby smiled back and leaned in for a soft, slow lover's kiss.
"I've been thinking of a new tattoo," Saphy said, "New ink for my new life."
"What sort of thing?" asked Gabby.
"I wonder how much it would cost to get the Rokeby Venus."
They both laughed and kissed once more as Saphy reached over to caress the symbol magically inked into Gabby's arm, the circle with its cross and arrow that had first brought them together.
"And how are you liking yours?" she asked, her one hand still on the magically transformed ink while the other strayed between Gabby's legs.
"Oh, so good," Gabby replied, although whether in response to Saphy's question about the tattoo or the fact that Saphy's questing fingers had slipped beneath Gabby's masculine genitalia to stroke along the wet labia that now existed beneath was unclear.
This amorous moment was, however, quickly interrupted by the sound of a splash below the cliff on which they lay. A piece of stone had obviously crumbled from the cliff top and tumbled the long drop into where the surf smashed against the rocks below. Both Saphy and Gabby glanced across at the source of the sound and then spun all their attention towards it, open mouthed in shock and fear.
Matching looks of panic crossed both of their faces because the sight they saw emerge above the cliffs like a horrible mirage was one they had thought never to see again. First came bald heads and aggressive, determined scowling faces, then tall, imposing bodies and long, strong arms. Finally the deadly twin assassins Phobus and Deimus stood over them, their great, looming figures casting long shadows as they seemed to block out the sun itself. Even though they had obviously just climbed the sheer surface of the cliff and were dressed in long dark robes, neither seemed to have broken a sweat.
Gabby felt a surge of nausea welling up in her stomach and her breathing quicken to a point where she was almost hyperventilating. Lying naked in the open air she felt so exposed. Just moments earlier she had felt utterly carefree, her masculine parts were still stiffened from Saphy's stimulation of her feminine parts and now her mind was thrown into a wild panic. She suddenly felt very awkward in her new body, like it would not obey her. She was rooted to the spot. There was nowhere to run to, nowhere to hide, no way to fight back.
Looking across at Saphy, Gabby could see that she felt just as exposed and helpless. Saphy's eyes were darting around this way and that, desperately searching for a solution, for some hope of escape, and finding none. Just like Gabby, Saphy knew that, surprised, naked and on the floor, there was little they could do against the vicious, fearful killers that had manifested themselves before them.
"You did not think you could forever evade fear and dread," hissed one in his high pitched lisp.
"We have searched for you, avoided the powers of your keepers and we have come for you now, unholy abomination," the other responded.
One now stood right over Gabby and the other in the same position above Saphy, just as paralysed by fear. Each drew their wicked looking sacrificial knives and raised them above their heads so that they glinted in the sun. A look of triumphant nastiness played across both faces.
